1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital broadcasting receiver designed to be capable of supporting diverse requests of a user in channel change.
2. Description of the Related Art
In commercial television broadcasting service, commercial messages are inserted at any time during broadcasting on one channel. Among users, some prefer not to watch commercial messages. When a commercial message is broadcast on one channel while such a user is watching a broadcast on the one channel, the user operates a switch on a remote controller or the like so as to change the current channel from the one channel to another channel in order to watch another broadcast. When the user judges that the commercial message is terminated after a lapse of time, the user operates a switch on the remote controller so as to return the current channel back to the original channel.
Since the channel is changed in accordance with the judgement of the user, the commercial message may be still on air when the current channel is returned to the original channel. In such a case, the user may have to change the channel again. On the other hand, as for a portion which had been broadcast on the original channel while the user was watching another broadcast on another channel, the user would miss the portion even if the user returns the current channel back to the original channel.
The user may forget to operate the control for returning the current channel to the original channel, or may delay returning the current channel to the original channel and therefore the commercial message may have been terminated when the user returns the current channel to the original channel. On this occasion, the program broadcast before the channel change may have already started again. In such a case, it brings a result that the user misses the portion of the program as described above.
For a user, it may be desired that the current channel is changed from the new channel back to the original channel automatically under a condition such as after a lapse of time. On the other hand, however, it may be desired for the user that the user changes the current channel at the user's will in accordance with a condition such as the contents of the program in order to continue to watch the program on the new channel. In the later case, the setting of automatic return to the original channel does not meet the intention of the user.
As described above, a user has diverse requests in processing of the channel change, for example, in a case where the user watching digital broadcasting changes the current channel from one channel on which a commercial message is broadcast, to another channel. However, there is a problem that such intentions of the user cannot be supported exactly and sufficiently in a conventional art, so that enjoyment of the user watching the digital broadcasting is spoiled.